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Monday, May 20, 2013

The Salt

Washington State Butcher Spikes Pig Feed With Weed

William von Schneidau, who owns the BB Ranch butcher shop at Pike Place Market in Seattle, has made prosciutto from pigs fed marijuana.

May 20, 2013 Despite its name, the "pot pig" experiment isn't an attempt to develop a new meaty treat for stoners. Instead, a Seattle butcher is feeding marijuana seeds, stems and root bulbs to swine as a cheeky money-saving measure.

Summary

Friday, May 17, 2013

Krulwich Wonders...

What Did I Do Last Summer? Oh, I Discovered How To Make Babies Without Sex. And You?

Aphid drawing 3

May 17, 2013 Sex is nice, but can animals make babies without it? One summer, two little boys, their tutor and the tutor's two friends did an experiment to explore this question. What they discovered, back in 1740, shocked the world.

Summary

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Shots - Health News

Human Scent Is Even Sweeter For Malaria Mosquitoes

An Anopheles gambiae mosquito feasts on a human.

May 16, 2013 Scientists used a Dutch woman's dirty stocking to learn that mosquitoes infected with malaria find humans hard to resist. Like a fungus that turns ants into zombies, the parasite seems to change the behavior of the mosquitoes for its own benefit.

Summary

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The Salt

Go Fish (Somewhere Else): Warming Oceans Are Altering Catches

Crew members unload a catch of sockeye salmon at Craig, Alaska, in 2005. Researchers say fish are being found in new areas because of changing ocean temperatures.

May 15, 2013 Fish are moving away from the equator and toward the poles to maintain their preferred water temperature. That means, for example, that fishermen are seeing swordfish normally found in the Mediterranean swimming near Denmark. But in the tropics, there are no fish to replace the ones that are leaving.

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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Parallels

The Enemy Inside: Rhino's Protectors Sometimes Aid Poachers

Mike Watson (left), CEO of Kenya's Lewa Conservancy, and conservationist Ian Craig identify the carcass of a 4-year-old black rhino named Arthur, whom poachers had killed the night before. The well-armed, well-informed poachers very likely used night vision goggles and a silencer on an AK-47.

May 14, 2013 The defenders of Africa's rhinos are battling a well-financed and well-informed enemy. Poachers clear $40,000 or more for a single rhino horn. They have cash for the latest weaponry and to pay for inside information from some of the very people whose job it is to protect the rhinos.

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Krulwich Wonders...

What Is It About Bees And Hexagons?

Bee with hexagon

May 14, 2013 Bees could build flat honeycombs from just three shapes: squares, triangles or hexagons. But for some reason, bees choose hexagons. Always "perfect" hexagons. Why?

Summary

Monday, May 13, 2013

Parallels

Vietnam's Appetite For Rhino Horn Drives Poaching In Africa

A Vietnamese rhino horn user displays her horn, which was a gift from her well-to-do sister. Last year, rhino horn sold for up to $1,400 an ounce in Vietnam, about the price of gold these days.

May 13, 2013 Demand for rhino horn, used in traditional Chinese medicine, is fueling a slaughter of the animals in Africa. In Vietnam, the sought-after commodity is fetching prices as high as $1,400 an ounce, or about the price of gold. There, some believe ground horn can cure everything from hangovers to cancer.

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Sunday, May 12, 2013

Around the Nation

For Year-Round Buzz, Beekeepers 'Fast-Forward Darwinism'

Members of the Plymouth County Beekeepers Association in Plympton, Mass., watch an instructor demonstrate how to "install" their new bees once they get them home.

May 12, 2013 Honeybees are in trouble across the U.S., but one association in Massachusetts is hoping to boost the population in its own area. The bees it currently uses have a hard time surviving the winter and battling other foes that have been killing bees nationwide. So beekeepers in Plympton decided to breed their own.

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Saturday, May 11, 2013

To Count Elephants In The Forest, Watch Where You Step

Elephants gather at dusk to drink at a watering hole in Kenya.

May 11, 2013 To know how elephants are faring, they need to be counted. But how do you count them when they're hidden under thick forest canopies? A conservationist in the 1980s started to count their poop, and that helped to create a model of elephants' numbers and movement through the forest.

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Thursday, May 09, 2013

Krulwich Wonders...

Moths That Drive Cars (Really)

Moth on ball

May 9, 2013 Welcome to the New World in which, no kidding, insects run robots. In this case, 14 moths take 14 drives in a wheeled vehicle and steer right to the target. Seeing is believing.

Summary

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Krulwich Wonders...

Wildlife That Isn't Wild And Isn't Alive

LS3

May 8, 2013 They're out of the lab now, flying through the air, crawling in the grass, buzzing near you, swimming in the ocean. They're robots. They're among us. We don't notice yet. But we will.

Summary

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

The Salt

Bee Deaths May Have Reached A Crisis Point For Crops

A bee inspector checks on a frame of bees to assess the colony strength near Turlock, Calif., in February. More than 30 percent of America's bee colonies died off over the winter.

May 7, 2013 The number of honeybees has now dwindled to the point where there may not be enough to pollinate some major U.S. crops, including almonds, blueberries and apples. And this year brought farmers closer than ever to a true pollination crisis.

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This Bat Knows How To Drink

The Pallas' long-tongued bat.

May 7, 2013 The Pallas' long-tongued bat has a neat trick at the tip of its tongue — tiny hairlike structures that fill with blood and stand straight out. This turns the tongue into a nectar-slurping mop at just the right time.

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